One sub-class of anti-cancer drugs (taxanes, vinca-alkaloids) now used extensively in the clinic is directed at microtubules and block the cell division cycle by interfering with normal assembly or disassembly of the mitotic spindle (see Chabner, B. A., Ryan, D. P., Paz-Ares, 1., Garcia-Carbonero, R., and Calabresi, P: Antineoplastic agents. In Hardman, J. G., Limbird, L. E., and Gilman, A. G., eds. Goodman and Gilman's The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics, 10th edition, 2001, The MacGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.). Taxol® (paclitaxel), one of the most effective drugs of this class, is a microtubule stabilizer. It interferes with the normal growth and shrinkage of microtubules thus blocking cells in the metaphase of mitosis. Mitotic block is often followed by slippage into the next cell cycle without having properly divided, and eventually by apoptosis of these abnormal cells (Blagosklonny, M. V. and Fojo, T.: Molecular effects of paclitaxel: myths and reality (a critical review). Int J Cancer 1999, 83:151-156.).
Some of the side effects of treatment with paclitaxel are neutropenia and peripheral neuropathy. Paclitaxel is known to cause abnormal bundling of microtubules in interphase cells. In addition, some tumor types are refractory to treatment with paclitaxel, and other tumors become insensitive during treatment. Paclitaxel is also a substrate for the multi-drug resistance pump, P-glycoprotein ((see Chabner et al., 2001).
Thus, there is a need for effective anti-mitotic agents that have fewer side effects than anti-microtubule drugs, and also for agents that are effective against taxane-resistant tumors.
Kinesins are a large family of molecular motor proteins, which use the energy of adenosine 5′-triphosphate (ATP) hydrolysis to move in a stepwise manner along microtubules. For a review, see Sablin, E. P.: Kinesins and microtubules: their structures and motor mechanisms. Curr Opin Cell Biol 2000, 12:35-41 and Schief, W. R. and Howard, J.: Conformational changes during kinesin motility. Curr Opin Cell Biol 2001, 13:19-28.
Some members of this family transport molecular cargo along microtubules to the sites in the cell where they are needed. For example, some kinesins bind to vesicles and transport them along microtubules in axons. Several family members are mitotic kinesins, as they play roles in the reorganization of microtubules that establishes a bipolar mitotic spindle. The minus ends of the microtubules originate at the centrosomes, or spindle poles, whilst the plus ends bind to the kinetochore at the centromeric region of each chromosome. The mitotic spindle lines up the chromosomes at metaphase of mitosis and coordinates their movement apart and into individual daughter cells at anaphase and telophase (cytokinesis). See Alberts, B., Bray, D., Lewis, J., Raff, M., Roberts, K., and Watson, J. D., Molecular Biology of the Cell, 3rd edition, Chapter 18, The Mechanics of Cell Division, 1994, Garland Publishing, Inc. New York.
HsEg5 (homo sapiens Eg5) (Accession X85137; see Blangy, A., Lane H. A., d'Heron, P., Harper, M., Kress, M. and Nigg, E. A.: Phosphorylation by p34cdc2 regulates spindle association of human Eg5, a kinesin-related motor essential for bipolar spindle formation in vivo. Cell 1995, 83(7): 1159-1169) or, KSP (kinesin spindle protein), is a mitotic kinesin whose homologs in many organisms have been shown to be required for centrosome separation in the prophase of mitosis, and for the assembly of a bipolar mitotic spindle. For a review see Kashina, A. S., Rogers, G. C., and Scholey, J. M.: The bimC family of kinesins: essential bipolar mitotic motors driving centrosome separation. Biochem Biophys Acta 1997, 1357: 257-271. Eg5 forms a tetrameric motor, and it is thought to cross-link microtubules and participate in their bundling (Walczak, C. E., Vemos, I., Mitchison, T. J., Karsenti, E., and Heald, R.: A model for the proposed roles of different microtubule-based motor proteins in establishing spindle bipolarity. Curr Biol 1998, 8:903-913). Several reports have indicated that inhibition of Eg5 function leads to metaphase block in which cells display monastral spindles. Recently an Eg5 inhibitor called monastrol was isolated in a cell-based screen for mitotic blockers (Mayer, T. U., Kapoor, T. M., Haggarty, S. J., King, R. W., Schreiber, S. L., and Mitchison, T. J.: Small molecule inhibitor of mitotic spindle bipolarity identified in a phenotype-based screen. Science 1999, 286: 971-974).
Monastrol treatment was shown to be specific for Eg5 over kinesin heavy chain, another closely related motor with different functions (Mayer et al., 1999). Monastrol blocks the release of ADP (adenosine 5′-diphosphate) from the Eg5 motor (Maliga, Z., Kapoor, T. M., and Mitchison, T. J.: Evidence that monastrol is an allosteric inhibitor of the mitotic kinesin Eg5. Chem & Biol 2002, 9: 989-996 and DeBonis, S., Simorre, J.-P., Crevel, I., Lebeau, L, Skoufias, D. A., Blangy, A., Ebel, C., Gans, P., Cross, R., Hackney, D. D., Wade, R. H., and Kozielski, F.: Interaction of the mitotic inhibitor monastrol with human kinesin Eg5. Biochemistry 2003, 42: 338-349) an important step in the catalytic cycle of kinesin motor proteins (for review, see Sablin, 2000; Schief and Howard, 2001). Treatment with monastrol was shown to be reversible and to activate the mitotic spindle checkpoint which stops the progress of the cell division cycle until all the DNA is in place for appropriate division to occur (Kapoor, T. M., Mayer, T. U., Coughlin, M. L., and Mitchison, T. J.: Probing spindle assembly mechanisms with monastrol, a small molecule inhibitor of the mitotic kinesin, Eg5. J Cell Biol 2000, 150(5): 975-988). Recent reports also indicate that inhibitors of Eg5 lead to apoptosis of treated cells and are effective against several tumor cell lines and tumor models (Mayer et al., 1999).
Although Eg5 is thought to be necessary for mitosis in all cells, one report indicates that it is over-expressed in tumor cells (International Patent Application WO 01/31335), suggesting that they may be particularly sensitive to its inhibition. Eg5 is not present on the microtubules of interphase cells, and is targeted to microtubules by phosphorylation at an early point in mitosis (Blangy et al., 1995). See also; Sawin, K. E. and Mitchison, T. J.: Mutations in the kinesin-like protein Eg5 disrupting localization to the mitotic spindle. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 1995, 92(10): 4289-4293, thus monastrol has no detectable effect on microtubule arrays in interphase cells (Mayer et al., 1999). Another report suggests that Eg5 is involved in neuronal development in the mouse, but it disappears from neurons soon after birth, and thus Eg5 inhibition may not produce the peripheral neuropathy associated with treatment with paclitaxel and other anti-microtubule drugs (Ferhat, L., Expression of the mitotic motor protein Eg5 in postmitotic neurons: implications for neuronal development. J Neurosci 1998, 18(19): 7822-7835). Herein we describe the isolation of a class of specific and potent inhibitors of Eg5, expected to be useful in the treatment of neoplastic disease.
Certain pyrimidones have recently been described as being inhibitors of KSP (WO 03/094839, WO 03/099211, WO 03/050122, WO 03/050064, WO 03/049679, WO 03/049527, WO 04/078758, WO 04/106492 and WO 04/111058).
In accordance with the present invention, the present inventors have discovered novel chemical compounds which possess Eg5 inhibitory activity and are accordingly useful for their anti-cell-proliferation (such as anti-cancer) activity and are therefore useful in methods of treatment of the human or animal body.